Annual Longmore Lecture in Disability Studies: Talila "TL" Lewis
Lewis has been at the cutting edge of critically intersectional thought, education, organizing, advocacy and litigation that highlights and addresses the nexus between race, class, disability, other marginalized identities and structural inequity for more than a decade.
Recognized as a White House Champion of Change and one of Pacific Standard Magazine’s Top 30 Thinkers Under 30, Lewis co-founded and serves as the volunteer director of Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of Deaf Communities (HEARD). She is also a founding member of the Harriet Tubman Collective and co-creator of the Disability Solidarity praxis, consultant on education and workplace justice, attorney and expert on cases involving disabled people.
Previously, Lewis was Givelber Public Interest Lecturer at Northeastern University School of Law and a visiting professor at Rochester Institute of Technology/National Technical Institute for the Deaf. A recent graduate of American University Washington College of Law, Lewis has received awards from numerous universities, the American Bar Association, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, the American Association for People with Disabilities, National Black Deaf Advocates and the Nation Institute, among others. In 2018 Lewis won the Roddenberry Fellowship and the Atlantic Fellowship for Racial Equity.